Making Bowl Blanks

Here is an abbreviated version of a tutorial I posted to my blog showing my process for making bowl blanks from a log.

First I cut a few inches off each end of the log to remove checking. Next cut off a section from the log that you will later split. I cut off an 18” section from this log.

Now I cut the log length wise and remove the pith. Sometimes you can get this is just one cut, sometimes you can’t. I usually leave the bark on, but it started falling off & the less bark you cut through, the longer your chain will last between sharpenings.

From here, I head to the bandsaw and use a circle cutting jig. I find the center of the blank, drill a hole to match the index pin, and decide on a diameter.

Don’t forget to seal the blank if it will sit for any substantial period of time. Lots of people use anchor seal, but I’ve had good luck with exterior latex paint or straight paraffin wax.

I hope this was helpful, but maybe everyone already knows how to do this.